Special features
Special Features
Drive-By Truckers, ‘The Sands of Iwo Jima’ – Songs About Soldiers
The Drive-By Truckers universe is populated by plenty of shady characters, but here, we meet one of the good guys. George A. is a "family man," and in 1941, when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, he first seeks a deferment, since there's work to do on the farm...
Dropkick Murphys, ‘Far Away Coast’ – Songs About Soldiers
Told from the perspective of a homesick soldier stuck "in the trenches, the fist of the beast," this acoustic folk ditty from Dropkick Murphys' 1998 debut carries neither a pro- nor antiwar message. The narrator is simply doing his duty, and as much as he'd like to be back home, enjoying the freedoms he might die at any minute for, he's not bitter...
Tom Waits, ‘Soldier’s Things’ – Songs About Soldiers
What's interesting about this tune from 'Swordfishtrombones' -- the 1983 album that saw Tom Waits trade his lounge-lizard piano-balladeer persona for the crazy carnival barker he's played ever since -- is what the lyrics don't tell us. Essentially, the song is a yard-sale pitch, a listing of items that once belonged to a soldier...
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, ‘Army Bound’ – Songs About Soldiers
There's a difference between antiwar and anti-soldier, and on this stomping Clash-meets-Thin Lizzy jam, left-leaning punk poet Ted Leo is nothing if not sympathetic to the men and women in uniform. The song isn't about war, but rather the economic factors that drive many to enlist in the military...
‘The Good Soldier,’ Nine Inch Nails – Songs About Soldiers
"How can this be real? / I can barely feel anymore," Trent Reznor sings on this 'Year Zero' cut, trying his best to capture the numbness known only to those who've actually seen active combat. NIN could have made this a much angrier song -- the album on the whole is critical of the U...
12 Years of DFA
If guests on hand next Saturday (May 25) for the '12 Years of DFA Records' party are the same folks who typically buy the label's releases, expect Brooklyn's Grand Prospect Hall to be filled with "really dorky white people." Those words come straight from 'Too Old to Be New, Too New to Be Classic,' a mini-documentary (watch below) about DFA produced by the Red Bull Music Academy, a trave
Liz Phair – Rockers Too Sexy for Their Own Good
Sex has always been a part of Liz Phair's music ('F--- and Run,' anyone?), but in 2003, when she went all Britney Spears and partnered with pop songwriters the Matrix for her radio-friendly self-titled album, critics turned on the former indie princess...
Marnie Stern – Rockers Too Sexy for Their Own Good
As if being a female guitarist in a dude-centric scene weren't hard enough, Marnie Stern is quite the looker. Sometimes, her cuteness can be a asset -- she promoted her latest album with a 'Win a Date With Marnie Stern' contest -- but often, when fans and critics praise her virtuosic shredding, it's done with thinly veiled sexism and condescension...